1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a striker for a door locking device for automobiles or any other locking device for opening and closing members mounted to be opened and closed freely relative to a main body, in which said striker is mounted to either one of the main body such as a vehicle body and the member such as a door or a hood, and also is adapted to engage with a latch mounted to the other one of them so as to restrict movements of the opening and closing member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The above mentioned strikers have been well known and widely used in door locking devices for automobiles and one example of such strikers is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.
This striker is constructed such that an upwardly expanded portion 22 is formed long in the forward and backward direction at the center of a base plate 21 made of steel having a large thickness d1, an engaging bar member 23 formed into U-shape opening downward by bending a steel bar material is installed by crimping both ends thereof at the front and rear parts of the expanded portion 22, countersunk-head bolts 25 are passed through countersinks 24 bored in the upper face of both sides of the base plate 21, and by means of the countersunk-head bolts 25 the base plate 21 can be fixedly attached to a vehicle body or a door.
However, in this construction, a steel plate of large thickness d1 must be used so that there are disadvantages that manufacturing is difficult and the entire device becomes heavy.
Now, there has been proposed a striker, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, which is made from a steel plate of thin thickness d2 by press working in such that a base plate 34 is formed to have an upwardly expanded portion 32 in the central part of the plate except the peripheral part 31 thereof and to have countersinks 33 with edges 33a bent downward in cone-shape at both sides of the expanded portion 32, and an engaging bar member 35 in U-shape opening downward is installed on the base plate 34 by crimping both ends of the bar member thereto at the front and rear parts in the center of the expanded portion 32 (for example, see Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-23887).
The above mentioned conventional thin type of striker has, on the one hand, an advantage that it can lighten weight of the device while maintaining a certain strength in comparison with a thick type, but on the other hand, has the following disadvantages. (1) When a great force F is exerted on the engaging bar member 35 to pull it upward after countersunk-head bolts 36 have been inserted through the countersinks 33 and the base plate 34 has been attached to a vehicle body or a door by the bolts 36, as shown in FIG. 10, the edges 33a of the countersinks 33 are deformed downward and at the same time the countersinks 33 are spread out to be enlarged of diameters thereof, so that it becomes easy to disengage heads 36a of the bolts 36 out of the countersinks 33 and strength against pulling apart after attachment of the device is weak. (2) If amounts of tightening the left and right countersunk-head bolts 36, 36 are different, for example the left bolt 36 is tightened more than the right bolt 36, the central part of the expanded portion 32 provided with the engaging bar member 35 may be inclined, and with this inclination, the engaging bar member 35 might be also inclined leftward as indicated by an arrow 37 in FIG. 9 to make angle of mounting the engaging bar member 35 (this angle is usually set at 90 relative to the base plate 34) out of order and to bring bad engagement with a latch (not shown).
The present invention has an object to provide a striker for a locking device which can solve all the drawbacks as mentioned above, is light weight and has a great strength against pulling apart.